Rene Descartes Evil Genius Essay

In the quest for certainty, Descartes realizes that some of his beliefs he holds are wrong or bad. After realizing the possibility of having bad beliefs, Descartes notes that other beliefs might be bad too. Such a situation arises since the basis of most of the beliefs is based on flawed reasoning or other bad beliefs. Therefore, Descartes wants a belief system devoid of false and uncertain beliefs, whether in themselves or the basis on which they exist. Such a belief system ought to have a basic foundation with basic beliefs that can justify other beliefs while they, do not need to be justified by other beliefs. Such a belief system ought to be the foundation that is independent and, on which other beliefs can be explained. Therefore, from these premises, Descartes opines that there is a need to establish the basic grounds of belief systems that are absolute and, preserves certainty. Such system of beliefs ought not to be shakable in the strongest possible doubt.
Descartes uses priori reasoning by establishing the ground on which there is no need for one to have experience or have an encounter with the evil genius. In this case, the framing of the evil genius analogy uses priori reasoning from which there exists no evil genius or actions that he had experienced. The same case is seen in the Cartesian skepticism that requires true beliefs that do not need other beliefs for their explanation. Such beliefs had not existed before the arguments and as such fits in the category of priori reasoning. It is on this basis that he concludes that the basic beliefs that are true to themselves can be established to act as the explanations for other beliefs.
Senses are deceptive. Human experiences are obtained from the environment through the experiences the person gets. Theses experiences vary depending on many factors some of which leads to absolute deception. However, grand deception, that can alter the environment so as to causes deception is not possible. Since humans experience in a continuous manner, it is possible for one to realize the deception. Such a situation occurs when a person experiences something that leads to beliefs. Later, the person may experience another experience that is completely contrary to the initial one. From the two experiences, the individual is capable of realizing the initial flaws in the beliefs system and hence realize that he had been deceived.